Drawing!
To be honest, not something I’ve done much of in the past decade or so. Might be longer, might be shorter, time and I don’t always see eye to eye. I used to love it. I’ve spent hours scratching images onto paper and I missed the laser focus.
Last year, some of my friends hopped on the Inktober train and rode it to its conclusion. And it piqued my interest. People were drawing on… paper? I thought this was old hat.
I stopped drawing once the more digital forms became the norm. I tried using computers to do my art and it just never clicked. I had looked into the Wacom style tablets when they came out but couldn’t rationalize the cost for a hobby at best.
On top of that, I had gone through Lasik and my ability to see up close required glasses. I had it done so I could see far away and didn’t really grasp the idea that I would lose my up-close vision so much. So drawing was more difficult and therefore, less fun.
And maybe that’s why the idea really appealed to me now. My friends were having fun and I was enjoying their works. I promised myself that I would give the next one a shot. So here we are in 2019 at the end of October. I loaded up my last drawing on social media platforms and I feel accomplished.
Some of the days were tough because the prompts just didn’t grab me or time was an issue. Other days were a blast and my joy in drawing was renewed. In a way, it was a blessing as my writing/editing had become a labor. A labor of love, mind you, but still labor. Getting to create a completed project in a different format in a day was like a breath of fresh air. My editing and writing became more fun as well.
What were the big take-aways for me? I liked having daily prompts. It gave me something to think about and poke at in different ways. I enjoyed the freedom of just drawing it out in ink, errors and all. I am a bit of perfectionist and flaws in my works drive me crazy. Having the freedom to make mistakes was liberating. I actually enjoyed having trouble seeing my work up close because I literally couldn’t focus on it. It gave everything a sort of whimsy.
But the best part for me was the return of that laser focus. I find it in my writing but not for most of 2019. It felt so good to tune out everything around me and be in the moment, the void where time doesn’t pass. Those moments are magic to me.
Will I do it again in 2020? Maybe…
Jon Gray Lang.com 